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AI keeps not being good at all manner of jobs. We’re told the bot is particularly good at updating old computer code. This is called refactoring — where you take a messy codebase and reorganise it so it’s clearer.
Cisco company president Jeetu Patel had a rush of blood to the head and gave one of his employees unlimited AI tokens — because the guy told him: [Fortune, archive]
he could rewrite Cisco’s legacy code with a two-person team.
… “So I’m like, you can go, you can go nuts.”
I’m sure that’ll work out great. Good luck.
Someone tested just how well the chatbot does on refactoring — they got several chatbot models to update some old PHP code to a current version. This is a common task for updating old websites. [arXiv, PDF]
They didn’t just point the bot at the whole codebase — they got 100 individual PHP code files from WordPress 4.0 from 2014 and told the bots to upgrade each file to PHP 8.3. They also tested the chatbots against the commercial tool Rector, which runs a series of rules — not a chatbot. Rector was not perfect, but the chatbots were way worse:
Untouched, 83 files already pass every check; the best LLM leaves only 59. Each model breaks 32–51 working files while repairing at most 10, whereas Rector breaks 7 and repairs 6. Most of this damage is unnecessary. Only 37 findings (7%) require a change under PHP 8.3, yet in compatible files with no required change, the LLMs break 36–60% (Rector: 8%).
The chatbots just broke stuff. But out in the world, people who are still calling themselves programmers try to use the chatbot for refactoring all the time.
(AI bros respond by saying that the study uses outdated models, the new ones are so much better. But back when those models were new, the same AI bros were saying how great they were for updating code.)
The chatbot is a machine for making a huge mess. You can’t refactor large codebases with a chatbot because the bot only has a limited context window — so it keeps forgetting where it started. The chatbot has no grasp of structure and it chronically repeats itself.
Kristoffer Grönlund develops the Gram coding editor. This is forked from the Zed editor, which was full of AI slop. Kristoffer is trying to clean up the codebase, and it’s still a mess: [blog post]
So far in the zed (now gram) codebase I have found three separate theme pickers, two separate markdown parsers and renderers, two separate language server installation implementations
… and probably even more nonsense that I’m not remembering now. Trying to fix anything is like pulling at a thread in a ball of yarn but the ball of yarn is the ball from Katamari Damacy and out tumbles three cows, a high rise building and a brass orchestra.
You can’t tell management this. Just use the AI to fix it! Hop to it! We need five more features today!
Then you end up in the same place as this guy on the Claude Code sub on Reddit: [Reddit, archive]
A year ago leadership told us everything goes through agents now. Hand written code needed a reason. It felt great for about 6 months, we shipped more than we ever had.
Now the codebase is around 3x the size it was and nobody can explain how most of it works. The agents struggle too, they keep re-implementing helpers that already exist somewhere else because there are 4 versions of everything.
The part that actually hurts is who is left. The two people who used to read every PR and push back left in the spring, one quit, one was “restructured”.
coderabbit still comments on every PR, but there’s nobody left who can tell if a comment matters or not, so people just resolve them all.
This month management started quietly asking us to “write more of it ourselves” again. Except half of us haven’t written anything non trivial in a year and it shows. I spent 2 days on something I would have done in an afternoon in 2024.
The Reddit commenters were super helpful — they told him to update to a new model.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been getting around a bit. He had a girlfriend on the side and it’s hit the papers.
This is not anyone’s business — except that the alleged girlfriend is allegedly a spy for China. And the US alleges she got Jensen to sell Nvidia chips to China, against US sanctions.
Jensen announced to the entire Nvidia staff that he’d had an affair. He mentions at the end the small detail: [Nvidia]
Regarding the national security concerns raised in news reports, NVIDIA’s Board of Directors has initiated an independent investigation. I support the investigation and will cooperate fully.
Good to hear.
Alice Huang — no relation — is a Chinese citizen working at Singapore company Megaspeed. A memo was going around the Trump administration in spring this year that Alice was not just someone Jensen spent a lot of time with, but a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security. [NYT, archive]
Most of this was already covered in a NYT story from the week before. [NYT, archive]
I’ve heard journalist gossip that they had some idea of all this since May.
The US government, including President Trump personally, has known all about Alice Huang for months. Though I certainly wouldn’t presume Nvidia’s White House Ballroom donations had anything to do with Trump thinking Jensen’s a great guy who can do no wrong.
The memo claim is that China wanted Alice to talk Jensen into selling them the latest Nvidia chips, despite the Biden era US sanctions against selling them to China.
Jensen wants to sell chips. Selling chips is what he does! He would be delighted to sell chips to China, if he was allowed to. And he’ll also sell the chips even if he isn’t allowed to.
We’ve known since at least 2025 that Nvidia chips have been pouring through Singapore into China. [FT, 2025, archive]
Bloomberg reported in December last year about Alice Huang’s Megaspeed buying tons of Nvidia chips, which they rent to Chinese cloud Alibaba — but they buy more chips than anyone could find. [Bloomberg, 2025, archive]
Alice Huang was pitching to Chinese companies in 2025 that Megaspeed could get them the Nvidia chips they needed. [FT, archive]
Trump knew all of this, but it’s fine.
In fact, the US Commerce Department was investigating Nvidia and Megaspeed in 2025. Then Nvidia called up and they transferred the investigation to the Justice Department — where nothing happened. [NYT, archive]
I can only surmise that someone in the administration is finally embarrassed enough to do something about this and isn’t willing to let Trump cover for Nvidia any longer. And Jensen and Nvidia are about to be run through the wringer.
Three Republican congressmen have called Jensen in to talk to them tomorrow about Alice Huang, China, and US national security. [press release]
What happens next?
How safe is Jensen in his job? The Nvidia stock price went down on Monday and it’s stayed down today. But Nvidia’s stock price has always been volatile.
Jensen has 100% done the job of a CEO. He can point at his track record. He’s made a ton of money. He’s sent the stock price up. He’s surfed the bubble expertly.
Also, Jensen is a bit hard to fire. He runs Nvidia very personally. He’s not really replaceable in Nvidia’s structure and he doesn’t have an obvious successor at the company.
Jensen not revealing the affair — is that securities fraud? The stock price sure went down. The problem is not the girlfriend — it’s the coverup.
Nvidia has not listed a 10-Q risk factor: “our CEO thinks he’s cool and he may start getting around.” Even Facebook listed as a risk factor Mark Zuckerberg doing martial arts and getting kicked in the head for a hobby. [CNBC, 2024]
In a divorce, Jensen’s wife Lori would almost certainly get half the assets. Jensen’s net worth would drop below a hundred billion!
It’s not public news yet, but I’m told by a pretty good source that Lori does want a divorce. This again is mostly nobody else’s business, but Nvidia will have to report that much stock moving.
You all have one question: will the AI bubble be shaken?
If Jensen has to quit Nvidia, that’ll send the stock price through the floor. Jensen did all the deals. Jensen arranged the circular financing that keeps all the AI numbers looking good — if only for the moment. Jensen is personally load bearing for the bubble.
Without Jensen Huang at Nvidia, the AI bubble is in trouble. Could be an early pop? We’ll see if my guess of 2027 for the crash was too late.
Update: well, I was dead wrong. News of a second affair has come out, in this case with one of his direct reports. And if there’s two, there’s ten. Wall Street Journal says Nvidia wants Jensen out. [NYT, archive; WSJ]
Robag Wruhme mit einem bunten Potpourri aus feiner Musik für Pampa Records‘ Mix-Serie Letter from Nowhere.
Letters from Nowhere is less a statement than a feeling.
The next letter comes from Robag Wruhme.
A little bit of everything, a little bit of nowhere. Strange encounters, familiar feelings and a few unexpected visitors along the way. Some things fit together for no particular reason. Luckily, Robag seems to know why.
And since Robag only releases one mix a year, we’re particularly happy that this year’s letter found its way to us.
Sent with love from nowhere.
Tracklist:
Intro – Flächenfläsh + Intro
Conic Rose – Less Lonely (Self Released)
Twit One, C.Tappin & Syrup – Cbreathe (Feat. Turt)
Khaderbai – Berlin ii Friedrichshain (Episode 10)
Antony Szmierek – Restless Leg Syndrome
Rossano Snel, Marcelo Politano, Francesco Pio Russo – And I Miss You
Curió Curió – Vida Que Entorna
Flo Naegeli – Shake
Calid – Baran
Labi Siffre – Cannock Chase
Doc Slepp – Hug
Mph, Ev – Euphoria
Cyan Lu Feat. Truphi – Wave
Martinou – Unfold
BRS – Rain Street Neighborhood
Venbee – Not My Day
Teebs – Nes
Dexter – Everyday Like This
The Notwist – One Of These Days
Birds Vs. Traffic – Nature Vs. Machines
Headache, Vegyn – Make A Wish
Sages, Lara Somogyi, Cyrus Reynolds – Unknowing
Bonobo hat gestern mit „Memory Signal“ und „Vakata“ gleich mal zwei neue Songs veröffentlicht. Und die sind, wie fast immer alles von ihm, ziemlich bis sehr gut.
